‘Poorly equipped Darfur police can’t deal with outlaws’: MP

The Minister of Interior Affairs, Esmat Abdelrahman, has acknowledged the inability of his ministry to deploy police in North Darfur’s Kutum, Um Baru, Karnoi, and El Tina localities.

The Minister attributed the “security vacuum” to the “absence of commissioners and other political leaders in those localities,” in a report to the national Parliament on Tuesday. He added that the deployment of police and the judiciary depends on the demands by the state authorities.

Speaker of Parliament Ibrahim Ahmed Omar, however, argued that “the absence of the executive branch does not automatically include an absence of police”.

“The poorly equipped police cannot defend themselves against the many outlaws in the region with their sophisticated weapons, and their military IDs.”

Mohamed Ahmed Minawi, independent MP for Um Baru, Karnoi, and El Tina constituencies, contradicted the Minister by saying that those three localities have a Commissioner. He said that the police are not sufficiently equipped to carry out their functions.

“The poorly equipped police cannot defend themselves against the many outlaws in the region with their sophisticated weapons, and their military IDs,” he told Radio Dabanga.

The Interior Minister announced in his report that this year 9.832 complaints have been filed in Darfur, including 12 rapes, 484 murders, 5.627 thefts, and 3.158 people who were wounded. He said that the number of rapes cases declined, from 31 cases in 2014 to 12 cases in 2015 until now. He mentioned five cases in West Darfur, four in South Darfur, two cases in North Darfur, and one in East Darfur.